Freelander 1 - Not starting, delay in turning engine over and various random electrical faults

Hi all.

Today, for the first time in 2 years the Freelander decided not to work. My wife was driving home and noticed that the clock went on (centre clock) and then the windows wouldn't work when she tried to put them up.

I went outside to check the fuses and cannot find any blown and a test with the meter shows the large fuses under the bonnet seem to be in order.

The car will now not start. I am guessing if my wife had switched the car off when the clock went out it wouldn't have started again.

The other odd thing is when I turn the ignition key there is a delay between the engine turning. I have found somebody had this problem before (the delay) and it was a relay I believe.

Does anybody have any ideas. Im wondering if this is some sort of catastrophic fuse box or ECU fail but Im just being negative because Im being moaned at about it.

Cheers all

Alan

Just as an update on this the problem appears to be the fuse box under the steering wheel. I jumped a wire from a positive feed and put it to a fuse on the lower part of the fuse box and the car started. I'll take the fuse box out tomorrow and hopefully find an easy to fix break. The issue with the method I used is that the fuel pump was intermittent in operation so I guess that a relay is not getting power somewhere as a result of this break somewhere in the fuse box. Im hoping it will be a relatively straight forward fix.

Thank you.

AlanFesta said:

Just as an update on this the problem appears to be the fuse box under the steering wheel. I jumped a wire from a positive feed and put it to a fuse on the lower part of the fuse box and the car started. I'll take the fuse box out tomorrow and hopefully find an easy to fix break. The issue with the method I used is that the fuel pump was intermittent in operation so I guess that a relay is not getting power somewhere as a result of this break somewhere in the fuse box. Im hoping it will be a relatively straight forward fix.

Thank you.

Click to expand...

Some have had problems with a leak to that box causing corrosion on the back. Perhaps a scrapyard one would be the best fix.

Thanks Guineafowl21. Ive just been looking on eBay with that exact same thought. Im not keen on the idea of having to take the fuse box out of mine every couple of months to solder it again. It strikes me as one of those jobs that will be a never ending repair rather than a fix.

Alan

Might it also be the main switch on the end of the ignition barrel? Another commonish fault.

Thanks for the input all. It seems to fit the exact path others have - no clock, radio, electric windows, rear boot and central locking with no start. When I crossed a positive wire to another fuse I did get the car to start up but it seemed a bit of a "dodgy" way to use the car on a regualar basis.

I will check the switch on the barrel and give it a clean out. Today I took out the fuse board and took it apart but could not see anything obvious. Theres places for corrosion to hide there so for the cost of a second hand unit it was worth doing. Im hoping its not the CCU but I guess I'll find out as soon as the fuse box arrives.

Thank you.

Fuse box replaced today with a used eBay one. Everything works perfectly. Thankfully.

Cheers,

Alan